New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-02-27

|
"Oh, nobody need to tell me about poor ser
wants." said an energetic woman Of forty. Irish
American, and for years in shirt factory. DON'T
| / know the way the hussesl do, comm out OF
| bog maybe an not knowing the names even, leu
I alone the use of half the things in The kltchen
and asking their twelve and fourteen doiars d
month"; Don't | know IL well, an the shame IL
is to em. but / know plenty O decent marc,
workin' girls too that give good satlsaclioh' anu
this is what they say. They say the main trouoic d
the mistl esscs don't know no more IMAM oaoicS
what a days work really is. A smart girl Keeps
On her feet all the time to prove she thU hzy'
for If the mistress finds her sitting down she
thinks there can't be much to do and that she
doesn't earn her wages. Then If the girl Tiles TO
save herself or is deliberate, they call her slow
They want girls on tap from in the morning
till 10 and IL at night. Tsnt fair. And then.
if there's a let-up in the work maybe they give
Won the baby To see to. I like nice baby, but
don't like having one turned over TO me when
I'm ct to drop scrabbng TO get through and sit
down bit I've naught to say for the girls
that's breaking things and half doing the work
They're shameful set and ought to be put down
somehow, but it's fact that the most I've known
in service have been another sort that stayed long
in places and hated change. There's many
good place too, but the bad ones outn'imbeis EN-
Women make hard mistrcsses, and say again Ia
rather be under q man that knows what he
wants. That's the way with most.
81 don't see why people are surprised that we
don't rush into Places" said a shopgir. our
world NAV be a very narrow world. and know
it u.s. but for all that it's the only one we've got,
and ri Int or wrong we're out Of it II we go Into
service. A teacher or cashier or an; body In
store, no matter if they have got common sense
dresn't want to associate with servants. Some
how YOU get a sort of smOOch. Young men think
and say for have heard lots of them: oh, she
can't amount to much if she hasn't brains enough
to make a living outside Of Kitchen You're
just down once for all if you go into one"
81 don't agree with you at ALL" said young
teacher who had come with her. "The people
that hire you 90 into kitchens and are not dis
graccd What l felt was, for you sec tired IT,
that they oughtnt to make me 20 into livery.
| was worn out with teaching and so l concluded
to try being nurse for while l found TWO
hard things one, that was never free Tor an
hour from the children, for took meals and all
with Them and any mother knows what n rest IT
is to 60 quite away from Them even for an hour :
| and the other was that she wanted me TO wear
the nurses cap and apron. She real good and
kind but when I said, would you like your
sister, Miss Louise. to put on cap and apron when
she goes out with them? p she got very red and
straightened up. It's very different matter
she said. you must not forget that in accepting
q servants place you accept a servants hmlta-
TONS That finished me. / loved the children.
but said: If you have no other thought OF what
am to the children than that had better CO.
went. and she put common, uneducated IRISH
yirl in my place. know good many who would
axe nurses places, and who are sensible enough
not to want to push into the family life. But
De q af q
make show and it's more stylish to have the
nurse in a cap and apron, and so she is ordered
into them"
"I've tried it." said one who had been dress
maker and found her health going from long sit
ting "My trouble was, no conscience as TO hours
and 1 believe youn find that is Mt the bottom
one Of the chief objections. My first employer
was q smart, energetic woman, who had done
her own work when she was first married and
knew what it meant or you'd think she might
have known. But she had no more thought for
me than II I'd been just machine. Shed sit
in her sittng-room on the second floor and ring
for me twenty times q day to do little Things
and she wanted me UP till IL TO answer the Doll
for she had great deal OF company. hhd u
God room and everyt thing nice, and she gave me
a great many things. but Ia have spared them
all il only could have had little time to my
self I was all worn out, and at last | had to 60.
There was another reason. had no place but
the kitchen TO see my friends | was thirty years
old and ms well born and well educated ms she, and
il didn't seem right. The mstresses think its
all the girls fault, but I've seen enough 10 know
that women haven't found out what Justice means,
and that girl knows it many time better than
her employer. Anyway, you couldn't make Inc
| try it again"
| any trouble was,' said another. who had beeD
| in cotton mill and gone into the home OF one OF
| the mill-owncrs as chambermaid, II hadn't any
place that I could be alone minute. We wcre
| POOR at home and four Of us worked in the MILL
| but l had little room all my own. even II 1t
didn't hold much. In that splendid big house
| the servants room was over the kitchen, hot and
close in summer and cold in winter and four beds
in it. We five had to live there together. with
only two bureaus and bit Of a closet. and one
wash-stand for all. There chance to keep
clean. or your things in nice order, or anything
| by yourself, and | gave up. Then l went into a
| little family and tried general hOusework, and
| the mistress taught me great deal and good
and kind only there the kitchen was dark
| little place and my room like it, and hadn't an
hour in anything that was pleasant and warm.
A mistress might see, you'd thnk, when u girl
was quiet and fond OF her home, and treat her
different from the kind that destroy everything,
hut / suppose the truth is, they're worn out with
that kind and don't make any difference It's
hard TO give up your whole life to somebody
cses orders, and always feel as if you was looked
at over wall like. but it is and YOU won't
get girls 10 try it TILL somehow or other, things
are different"
| Last on the record shall to-day came n
young woman born in Pennsylvania in fairly
| wcll-to-do farmers house.
81 like houseworlk,T she said. '"There's moth
ing suits me so well We girls never had any
money nor mother either and / went into a
water-cure near the Gap and stayed awhile. Now
the man that run it believed in all being one
family lie called the girls helpers and he fixed
things so't each one had some time to herself ev-